Scholarship Program

Founded in 1974, the Engineering School was the first school at Washington University to create a scholarship program.

Support for scholarships is one of the most important investments alumni can make in the present and future success of Washington University. Scholarships and fellowships help attract and retain outstanding young men and women in both the undergraduate and the graduate and professional programs, thus contributing in a major way to the culture of excellence at the University.

Scholarships make it possible for qualified applicants to attend a premier university and achieve their fullest potential, regardless of their personal financial means. In many respects, scholarships help erase the distinction between those on different ends of the economic spectrum.

Endowed Scholarships

One of the earliest endowment gifts to Washington University was a scholarship fund for children of Civil War veterans, established in 1871. In the intervening years, gifts to endow scholarships in perpetuity have grown increasingly popular; funds have been created by alumni, parents, and other friends, including corporations and foundations, in each of the schools and at the university level.

The minimum amount required to establish an endowed scholarship is $50,000. Other categories of scholarship funds and the minimum gift levels required to endow them are:
    Sustaining Scholarship ($100,000)
    Founders Scholarship ($250,000)
    Benefactors Scholarship ($500,000)

Annual Scholarships

These scholarships encourage donors to make Annual Fund gifts of $2,500 or more to create one-year, named scholarships. Scholarship donors are recognized by the William Greenleaf Eliot Society at the level of Eliot Fellow or higher.

A main attraction of the program is the opportunity it offers donors to meet and get to know the students they are helping, and for the students to be able to thank their sponsors in person. Often, lasting friendships and even business and professional relationships have developed between sponsors and scholarship recipients.